That Bloody Lotus
by Pandora-Pandemonium
Summary: Oneshot. Because there's no way that Gaara could survive the fury of Lee's Reverse Lotus. Rated for blood.


_Preliminary Death by Tsubasa Namikaze_

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><p>Gaara and Lee stood a good distance apart from each other on the Chuunin Exam preliminary arena. Both were gearing up for the final moments of the battle, Lee grabbing a hold of the chakra in his defunct <em>keirakukei<em> in preparation to release an Inner Gate, and Gaara using his chakra to grind some of the tiles around him into sand to defend against Lee's next manoeuvre. They stared each other down dramatically for a minute or two, because ninja have the time to do that in a real battle.

"For you it ends here," Gaara drawled lazily, completely confident of his victory.

In response, Lee said, "Well, one way or another, this move will be the last."

Slowly and deliberately, Guy's protégé crossed his arms in front of his face – totally obscuring his view of his opponent, which is equivalent to buying a one way ticket to Hell courtesy of a Crushing Sand Burial – and focused on forcing the Third Gate open. The redhead simply stood there glaring, when he really should have murdered Lee the moment the freak with the bowl cut lost sight of him.

Meanwhile, Kakashi unveiled his Sharingan in order to record and copy Lee's speed. Sasuke could positively wipe the floor with any other contestant with that level of swiftness, unless he faced Gaara or Lee himself, in which case the Uchiha would need to get past that godforsaken sand or be able to dodge that (admittedly) incredible taijutsu. At the same time, he was busy explaining the concept of the Eight Inner Gates to Sakura.

Neji scoffed, his Byakugan popping into effect. Kakashi didn't even know the half of it. Thanks to their amazing eyes, the Hyuuga could see much more about the chakra system than anyone else, and were perfectly content with keeping their knowledge to themselves. Of course, they could see a lot more than that about a person, and they were careful never to mention it. It wouldn't do for their prim and proper image. On the subject of his teammate, Neji was sure that he could get close enough to liquefy Lee's brain with a well-aimed Jyuken before the boy pummelled him to death. Maybe.

A spike in chakra drew their attention back to Lee, whose skin turned the colour of boiled octopus with an impressive number of veins popping out on his forehead reminiscent of the Byakugan. It seemed that, even unto protecting his fragile pride and 'Ninja Way', Lee tried to emulate Neji. Everyone whimpered, the image of Neji spliced with Guy scarring them for life. The green-clad taijutsu prodigy finally uncrossed his arms in a sweeping gesture, and the ground around him depressed and cracked and groaned in protest of the immense chakra pressure. He roared and hunched over, looking for all the world like a poster boy for horrid constipation. The spectators of the match saw a visible aura swirl around him as his eyes lost focus, and half of them expected his hair to turn golden or for him to shout something unintelligible like 'KA ME HA ME HA'!

As it was Sakura turned to Neji and asked him a question, temporarily forgetting her disdain for him in nearly murdering his own cousin by way of groping her.

"Neji, what does the Byakugan say about his power level!"

In a disbelieving voice, Neji told her, "It's... it's _over nine thousand_!" He proceeded to clench his fist and shake it in front of himself.

In the meantime, Gaara was confident that Lee wouldn't be able to get through his shield and _still_ hadn't made a move. Quite obviously, despite his love for mercilessly slaughtering anyone he comes across, the most prominent of his vices was sloth.

Finally, Lee made the deciding move of the match and rushed Gaara, his already ridiculous speed magnified to, again, completely unrealistic proportions (for real this time). He crossed the space between them in an infinitesimal unit of time and kicked in the same way he would begin his Primary Lotus before the Sand Shield could block it. Gaara's head snapped up and was separated from his neck with a nauseating ripping sound. It flew up into the rafters of the building and impacted a beam, instantly shattering it in a fireworks display of bone, blood and brain matter that would have made Shukaku proud. Gouts of blood sprayed from the headless body of the Suna shinobi, as it swayed and crashed to the floor with a sense of grave finality.

Baki gaped. Temari fainted. Kankuro puked.

Panting, Lee let his chakra resettle into its regular patterns as the Inner Gates he opened quickly reaffirmed their positions. He staggered a bit, suddenly overcome with fatigue, and looked from Gaara's headless body to Neji in the rafters.

"I am truly sorry, Neji! I was planning on keeping this move in reserve against you!"

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><p><em>The End<em>

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><p><em>Keirakukei: <em>Chakra Network


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